Living in Consciousness ~ Indi(r)a's Food and Garden Weblog

Category: Sprouts

“Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos: the plants, the clouds, everything.” An old proverb says. Here is a hope that this north Indian kadi inspired recipe will contribute to the cause. Garden fresh green bell peppers are cooked with moong bean sprouts in dahi sauce. The cooling dahi sauce provides an interesting and characteristically North-Indian contrast to somewhat earthy bell peppers. This nutritious and easy to prepare recipe can be served as a main course accompanied with rice or roti.

1. In a large skillet, heat peanut oil. When oil is hot, add and toast kasuri methi, cumin and methi seeds in that order to fragrance.

2. Add onion, tomato, bell pepper one after another and saute until softened, about ten minutes.

3. Add moong sprouts and salt, chilli, garam masala powder and turmeric. Pour about half cup of water. Mix well. Cover the skillet and steam-saute until the moong sprouts are soft and tender.

4. In a cup, take dahi and add besan flour. Mix them well without any lumps.

5. Reduce the heat to low. Stir a little of this dahi-besan mix into the subji, then gradually add the entire mixture. Simmer on low heat for about two minutes. Turn off the heat. Garnish with cilantro leaves. Serve warm.

This is my first time preparing zucchini pesarattu and I have to say this first try has turned out to be the best garden to table zucchini experiment. The recipe is easy. Pick tender zucchini. Grate and add it to pesarattu batter. Zucchini pesarattu base is power-packed moong sprouts. To stabilize the moong batter, I added little bit besan flour. Grated carrot, onion and fresh ginger made good companions to tender zucchini. Simple and sublime, these delicious pesarattus evoked a longing for a summer supper beneath a large and shady mango tree.

In a blender or food processor, take sprouted moong beans. Add green chillies, ginger and salt. Blend the ingredients to fairly fine consistency. Add about half cup of water for easy blending.

Take the pesarattu batter in a bowl. Add besan flour, onion and grated zucchini and carrot. Mix well.

Heat a tava or griddle. Pour a ladle full of batter onto the tava. Gently spread into a small circle. On medium heat, cook both sides to golden. They do not require oil or ghee. But drizzle some if you wish.

In a deep-bottomed skillet set over medium heat, heat a tablespoon of peanut oil. Add cumin and saute to fragrance. Add onion and green chillies. Stir-fry to soft-brown. Add the sprouts and spinach. Partially cover the pan and cook, until the leaves have collapsed. Sprinkle turmeric, salt and coconut. Mix well and continue cooking for another two minutes. Serve hot.

Spinach&sprouts is a great workout vratham food and I usually have it as it is without rice or roti. But I know that spinach&sprouts make a nice side dish to dal and rice or roti and a tasty filler for samosas and kachoris.

I made my grandmother’s recipe today. My grandma is about 80 years young, full of vitality, from Nandikotkur and now lives in Hyderabad with my uncle’s family. She used to (still does sometimes) prepare either sorghum or bajra roti for breakfast everyday when we were growing up. The leftover rotis are made into a roti-upma for evening snack. Roti-upma (or Rottupma) may sound unique, but it is pretty common in Nandyal and Nandikotkur areas of Andhra. The recipe is simple. Take rotis, preferably leftover and hardened. Break them into small pieces. Sauté with upma ingredients. Easy and tasty, I love my grandma’s roti-upma.

Evening:
A small cup of ginger tea without sweetener
Remaining half of industrial-sized Fuji apple. Apples are huge here.

Night:
A cup of pea sprouts soopa with plenty of fresh kale from backyard, which was grown on dear Kay’s recommendation. Fresh and filling, good food
A cup of veggie-rich sambar and one papad
A glass of cold and delicious buttermilk from homemade yogurt

Workout:
15 minutes cycling, mile walk, and high intensity step aerobic class for one hour – Morning. Gardening work in the evening.

In retrospect:
Mild stomach discomfort because of all the guggullu. Should include more ginger, hing and lemon.
Peaceful and pleasant day.

Pea Sprouts Soopa with Kale(for four or two for one or two meals)

Dried peas from Bharath are available in two colors. Green and yellow. Like fraternal twins, they are from the same family but are different taste and texture wise. Today’s recipe is with yellow dried peas with one lone green one.

The yellow peas are soaked in plenty of water overnight, then kept in a muslin cloth covered for a day for sprouting. The pea sprouts are then cooked with kale and seasoned with traditional Bharath flavors.

Why take the trouble to sprout? It’s because the sprouting process makes the legumes and lentils easily digestible and also increases nutritional value. The following recipe is based on Vatana Ambat of Karnataka/Maharashtra. Creamy pea sprouts and silky greens, it’s a decent soopa particularly when you are in no mood for fancy fixings. Give it a try.

Preparation:
Step 1: Place sprouted peas and two cups of water in a pot. Add half teaspoon salt. Cover and cook, until peas are fork tender. Takes about 15 minutes.
Add the kale to peas and continue to cook until they collapse. Add the blended Bharath flavoring. Mix well. If the soopa looks too dry, add about half cup of water. Simmer on low heat for five minutes.

Step 2: At the end of the cooking, do the onion tadka: Heat a tablespoon of peanut oil in another pan. Add pinch each – hing, cumin and mustard seeds and a sprig of curry leaves. Toast to fragrance. Add the onion. Fry to crisp. Stir in turmeric and toast for couple of seconds. Add this onion tadka to simmering soopa. Enjoy hot with ghee, rice or roti. Good on it’s own as well.

For me, lunch is the ideal meal of the day. Less bustle than breakfast and less stressful than dinner. And this is what I prepared for our lunch today. Masoor dal sprouts cooked with fresh turai and served with chapati. Tasty combination.

Masoor sprouts are the next best thing after mung sprouts. The taste buds are in chorus. Any fans of masoor sprouts out there?

For masoor sprouts: Purchase whole masoor dal from Indian grocery. For sprouting, we need the whole dal with skins, not the split, orange ones. Soak a cup of whole masoor dal in water for 6 hours. Drain and take the rehydrated dal in a muslin cloth. Cover and keep it in warm place. The sprouts will appear in a day or two.

Cook: Heat a teaspoon of peanut oil in a skillet. From masala dabba, add 6 curry leaves and pinch each – cumin and mustard seeds. Toast to fragrance. Add onion and sauté to soft. Add turai pieces, green chilli and masoor sprouts. Cover the skillet. Cook, stirring often until the sprouts are tender. Turai cooks easily and doesn’t take much time. Just before turning off the heat, add coconut, turmeric and salt. Mix and cook two more minutes. Serve the curry warm with rice or chapati.

It was an odd day. We bought green papaya thinking it was red sweet papaya. When cut open, realized that it was really a “green” papaya and not a red papaya. Not going to waste such pretty fruit, I prepared all-raw papaya kosambari by adding mung bean sprouts, onion, tomato and green chilli. Green papaya has cucumber like taste and made a fine appetizer to our afternoon meal.